The Story of Tonight
by HecateA
Summary: On the night before the third task, three champions curl up together and talk about what they'll do once the tournament is done and the games are over. Oneshot.


**Author's note: **Enjoy!

**Hogwarts: **Assignment #1, Arithmancy Task #2, Write a story with the theme of 'Wanderlust' or 'Pursuing a Dream.'

**Warnings: **Set in wartime and military hospital; permanent injury

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

* * *

**The Story of Tonight **

_Raise a glass to freedom,_

_something they can never take away._

_No matter what they tell you._

_Let's have another round tonight._

_Raise a glass to the four of us._

_Tomorrow there'll be more of us._

_Telling the story of tonight_

-_The Story of Tonight, _Lin-Manuel Miranda

Had Cedric been surprised about the note that Viktor had slipped in his pocket when they'd walked past each other in the hall? No. Was he surprised that the note asked told him to come to the Astronomy Tower, their usual spot since Viktor and Fleur both missed seeing the sky from their respective rooms in the ship's hull and the carriage's hidden halls? No. Was he surprised that Fleur had brought wine? No, and he had in fact brought three mugs from the Hufflepuff Common Room in anticipation of this. This was not their first night together.

Fleur kissed his cheek when he brought the mugs to her, pouring the white wine with an expert (and practised) hand. Her fingers were tipped with the same dark blue nailpolish as Cedric's hands, and a look of intense concentration took her over as she got their beverages sorted. Cedric wished he understood everything she said about depth of flavour and fruity or nutty undertones; he supposed he might know better if he was the kind of person to visit Italian wineries or go wine-tasting in chic French cities or seaside Mediterenean towns.

"I decided to get us something _very _excellent for tonight," Fleur said. "I knew Madame Maxime must have brought a bottle, but it took me hours to find it hidden in her cabin. It is called _Magie enbouteillée. _It is wine made, pressed, and aged right at Beauxbatons."

"Hmm," Viktor said, taking the mug from Fleur. He swirled the wine and brought the mug to his nose, something that Fleur had taught them to do and insisted was a crucial part of wine-drinking. "Is it sweet?"

"It's sweet as me," Fleur said, winking.

Viktor snickered and reached out to ruffle her hair as Fleur poured the last mugfull of wine for Cedric. Then he tugged on Fleur's hand so that she came to rest against him, took Cedric's empty hand, and raised his cup.

"Here is to us," he said. "Good luck to us all, and to Harry though he is not here, in the labyrinth tomorrow. No matter what happens, I will leave Scotland a winner for having met the two of you and a better man for it as well."

"Cheers," Cedric said with a smile.

"_Santé," _Fleur said.

Their cups clinked and they drank to their own health. Viktor dragged the pair of them towards the big armchair where Professor Sinistra usually sat, watching the stars while her students squinted through telescopes. Fleur curled up on his lap and Cedric sat on the floor leaning against their legs, Fleur reaching down to run her hands through his curls. He could hear Viktor's slow, steady breathing—as if he was preparing for a Quidditch game.

"I can't believe it's nearly over," Cedric said.

"I can not wait for it to be over," Fleur said. Viktor snickered. "What? Once this tournament is finished, I will be able to sleep at night without worrying about my little sister being dragged into this again."

"Hmm—I see what you mean," Viktor said. "We will not have to worry so much."

"But I'll miss you, when you go home," Cedric said, leaning his head back again and looking up at them.

"Go home? Not at all, Cedric," Fleur said. She accidentally added an accent to the e in his name, lifting up the first syllable. "We will be free. We will be free from this tournament and graduated from school and we can go wherever we want to do whatever we please. Except for Viktor—he will be playing Quidditch."

"Only from May to September," Viktor said. "The International Quidditch season is not so long."

"So you've decided, then?" Cedric said. "You'll play for the Bulgarian team full time?"

He nodded, and Cedric tried to imagine what the stadium just outside Sofia looked like, which led him to wonder what the Bulgarian looked like and what there was to see and do and taste there, as Viktor explained. "They were the closest thing to family that I had for years, and playing with them was always my dream. I will not leave them now—though I would be pleased to leave Bulgaria to join you two, wherever you will be."

"I miss Arithmancy," Fleur said, tripping over the unusual 'th' sound that didn't exist in French. "There was not much of it in the tournament, and I would like to work with numbers again. And treasure, I missed Beauxbaton's collection of artefacts."

"Quidditch, treasures, and numbers," Viktor said. "We make a balanced triad. And you, Cedric?"

Cedric thought for a second.

"I'm not sure," he said. Months ago, that would have scared him. Merlin, it wouldn't have been _possible _for him not to know. But with the two of them so close, keeping him safe and grounded, Cedric said it and said it openly.

"My Mum and Dad both work at the Ministry," Cedric said. "And they've had good careers and worked hard in school for it, and they always… well, it always seemed like the thing to do."

Cedric was good at doing that; _the thing to do. _That was how he'd wound up in this tournament, because signing up was the thing to do to make his house and his school and his family proud. And he didn't regret it, but it was nearly over and what would Cedric walk away from it with?

"Yes, but what do you want?" Fleur asked.

"I don't think I want to do the thing that every good, hardworking, capable student does after graduating," Cedric said. "I mean… I faced dragons and touched the bottom of the Black Lake this year. I met you two, against all odds. Paperwork seems very dull."

"Then do not do paperwork," Viktor said simply.

"I agree. What do you _want _in your most ridiculous fantasy, Cedric."

"I wouldn't have been creative enough to think of you two only months ago," Cedric said.

"That was very sweet but not an answer," Fleur said—as per usual not letting Cedric slip away from her. "Here, I will make ridiculous. I would like to be the curator of a museum. Or I would like to appraise treasure for the largest bank in the world. I would like to work for a dragon and keep a detailed log of their horde as well as a list of every attempted theft by unwise knights.."

Cedric grinned. Viktor reached down and ran his fingers through Cedric's curls.

"It can be anything. It _should _be anything," he said.

"Well, meeting you two really had me realizing how little I know about the world and how rarely I've left England," Cedric said. "I… I think I want to travel."

"Travel where?" Fleur asked. "What would you do?"

"I don't know," Cedric said. "Anywhere, I suppose. To do anything. I think… I don't know, I think it would be nice not to have to do anything, to be anything, to impress anybody. I think it would be nice to just _be, _for a while."

"I think that this is a sad dream, Cedric," Fleur said. She slid off of Viktor's knee and came to sit next to Cedric, who self-consciously took another sip of wine. She put a hand on his cheek and turned his head so he faced her. He couldn't help but meet those intense cobalt blue eyes that were always so piercing and daunting and deep, even if he knew exactly what they would do to him—which was melt him from the inside out. "If that is your dream, it tells me that you do not usually think that you are enough."

"I know what it is like," Viktor spoke up, "to think that you have to earn every inch of space you take in the world. It is wrong. The people who make you feel that way are wrong. I think it is a good rule that everybody deserves so much more than they ever think or know. And you, Cedric, more than anybody else."

He felt his cheeks blushing. Viktor also came to join them on the Astronomy Tower's floor, and he pulled Cedric against him, laying a kiss on the top of his head. Cedric let himself lean back against Viktor and put a hand on the strong arms that were wrapped around him. Fleur put her head on his lap, curling into him.

"Well, that's my dream," Cedric said. "To be for a while, and to be happy, and to see the world."

"I think you can manage that," Fleur said, smiling up at him. "_We _can manage that, if you are looking for travel companions."

"I think so too," Cedric smiled. "Maybe that's what I'll do with all that prize money if I win."

"If _you _win?" Fleur scoffed.

"Now _that _is a wild dream," Viktor teased. Cedric laughed and relaxed against the two of them again, turning his eyes towards the night sky, happy to be, just _be, _with his two champions.

* * *

**Stacked with: **MC4A; Hogwarts

**Individual Challenge(s): **Hola, Bonjour, Jambo; Hufflepuff MC; Durmstrang MC; Beauxbatons MC; Badger Seeker; Poly Bribery; Brush; Spring Rain; Seeds; Matter of Means; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Truth); Themes & Things B (Ambition); Themes & Things F (Honesty); Lovely Triangle; Ethnic & Present; Rian-Russo Inversion; In a Flash; Green Ribbon (obsessed with Trish's nail-polish wearing Cedric); Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Word Count: **1538


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